Tar Sands 101
The Tar Sands "Gigaproject" is the largest industrial project in human history and likely also the most destructive. The tar sands mining procedure releases at least three times the CO2 emissions as regular oil production and is slated to become the single largest industrial contributor in North America to Climate Change.
The tar sands are already slated to be the cause of up to the second fastest rate of deforestation on the planet behind the Amazon Rainforest Basin. Currently approved projects will see 3 million barrels of tar sands mock crude produced daily by 2018; for each barrel of oil up to as high as five barrels of water are used.
Human health in many communities has seriously taken a turn for the worse with many causes alleged to be from tar sands production. Tar sands production has led to many serious social issues throughout Alberta, from housing crises to the vast expansion of temporary foreign worker programs that racialize and exploit so-called non-citizens. Infrastructure from pipelines to refineries to super tanker oil traffic on the seas crosses the continent in all directions to allthree major oceans and the Gulf of Mexico.
The mock oil produced primarily is consumed in the United States and helps to subsidize continued wars of aggression against other oil producing nations such as Iraq, Venezuela and Iran.
To understand the tar sands in more depth, continue to our Tar Sands 101 reading list
Angry Union Workers Continue Loud Demonstrations Against Labour Laws
Angry Union Workers Continue Loud Demonstrations Against Labour Laws
Sep, 13 2007 - 2:40 PM
CALGARY/AM770CHQR - A court ruling early Thursday morning has put the kibosh on information pickets being staged at various locations throughout the province, particularly in the Edmonton area and Fort McMurray.
Outside the Petro-Canada refinery in Fort Saskatchewan, the cease and desist order didn't have much of an impact, as many more workers gathered, including Roger Jordan.
Canada votes 'no' as UN native rights declaration passes
Canada votes 'no' as UN native rights declaration passes
Last Updated: Thursday, September 13, 2007 | 3:07 PM CT
CBC News
The international community adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on Thursday, despite high-profile opposition from Canada and three other countries.
Street drugs, gangs on rise in the West
Street drugs, gangs on rise in the West
'Street-level' social problems worst in Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver: study
Larissa Liepins, CanWest News Service
Published: Wednesday, September 12
Western Canadian cities are fighting a rising tide of street drugs and gang activity, says a report released Tuesday by the Canada West Foundation.
In researching Hard Times: A Portrait of Street Level Social Problems in Western Canada, the foundation consulted 311 frontline workers, experts and community leaders.
Tahltan Protest against Shell/CBM takes campaign to British media
Protest against Shell takes campaign to British media
CATHRYN ATKINSON
September 11, 2007
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070911.BCSHELL11/TPSt...
Native protesters and environmental groups are taking the next round of their fight against a coal-bed methane exploration project in a remote part of central B.C. to the British media.
Nebraska: Keystone Pipeline Concerns Are Aired
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Story last updated at 1:16 am on 9/12/2007
Pipeline Concerns Are Aired
By: Nathan Johnson
nathan.johnson@yankton.net
http://images.morris.com/images/yankton/mdControlled/cms/2007/09/12/1988...
During a meeting Tuesday to comment on the Department of State's Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Keystone Pipeline, area residents pinpointed what they see as shortcomings in the document.
Hugo Knows the Value of His Tar
Exxon Mobil Seeks Arbitration Over Venezuela Assets (Update4)
By Jim Kennett and Steven Bodzin
Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest oil company, filed for arbitration in a dispute over assets seized by the Venezuelan government.
The Irving, Texas-based company's 41.7 percent stake in the heavy oil project had a net-book value of about $750 million at the time of the expropriation, according to a regulatory filing today. The company said it requested arbitration Sept. 6 with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.
Haisla Indian Act Government selling out to Liquified Natural Gas Port?
This article would make some sort of sense if the proposed deal recognized the ownership of the Haisla, and if they were to be paying taxes, rent, and more in the way of revenue sharing that actually represents the Haisla as the eternal owners of this territory. It does not do any of that. It is more in the model of typical land grabs with shady councils of bought and paid for corruption.
Suncor Trying to Buy Up Natural Gas Supplies for Tar Pits
- Alberta (& Saskatchewan) Tar Sands
- Enbridge Gateway Pipeline/ Offshore Tanker Traffic [BC]
- Mackenzie Gas Project / Alaska Highway pipelines [NWT/AK]
- Tarsands Infrastructure: South/ East [US & Can]
- International oil & gas
- Climate Change / Emissions
- Economics
- Energy
- Forests
- Indigenous
- Social Impacts
- Water
However benignly this article is written, it means that the pipeline infrastructure from all directions-- BC, NWT, southern AB, lower 48 and more-- is expected to grow heading *into* the tar pits so that it can grow heading *out of* the tar pits. This doesn't include the "into" pipelines for 'diluent' kerosene needed to convert heavy bitumen into a flowing sludge mock-oil. This article is timed with the corporate projection announcement made by Suncor that they intend to overtake Syncrude as the single largest producer of tar sands mock oil this year. Small wonder, it's a matter of physics.
"Nuclear power buyer not for real"
Let me ask a question: Is it not incredibly bad PR for a corporation to announce that they have a "secret buyer" for one of the world's most infamous sources of energy, and a source of energy that hasn't even been approved or constructed yet?
Canada's water 'on the negotiating table'
Canada's water 'on the negotiating table,' report says
Vague wording in NAFTA doesn't protect country against bulk shipments and other forms of sale to the U.S.
MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070910.WATER10/TPStor...
September 10, 2007
Despite regular assurances from the federal government that Canada won't allow water exports, the country remains vulnerable to water diversions to an increasingly thirsty United States, says a new research paper commissioned by the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto.
